This is not a new tactic in PPC ads by any means, but so many businesses aren’t taking advantage of it. The expected immediate impact from making this change is improved clickthrough rate (CTR). And who doesn’t want that? In the long run, the benefit of an improved CTR is a better return on your paid search investment.

Let’s look at how it impacts the search experience.

A stamped text ad shows credibility to the searcher because the ® can only be used legally by the registered entity.

It can visually break up the space in an all-text SERP and draw your eye to the ad.

The symbols can help you introduce newly branded products or services in instances where Organic results are not yet ranking.

Your competitors may be deterred from attempting to illegally use your trademarked terms in their ads if you’ve placed your stamp on them.

Sure, that all sounds intuitive. But what does the actual data tell us?

When a new retail client came to us recently, one of the first changes we made was to put a ® symbol on their registered brand name across the account. Within 30 days, the average CTR on Google increased from 3.5% to over 10%. That’s a 185% increase in just a month.

But what we saw in the months that followed is also impressive — Improved overall Quality Score, which is based partially on expected CTR, lower CPCs, and lower Cost per conversion. If those two factors aren’t reason enough to take the time for a little copyright protection on your own ads, I’m not sure what is.

Want to give it a try?

Your trademark stamp can be used in ad headlines or in the description text. Even better, you can use these symbols in many Ad Extensions – the most impactful in this case are Sitelink Extensions, Price Extensions, and Callouts.

As with all things: use your stamp strategically, measure results often, and make decisions accordingly.